User:The hidden ones/sandbox

Socratic

Type of site	Question and answer
Created by	Chris Pedregal and Shreyans Bhansali
URL	socratic.org
Registration	No
Launched	September 2013 (2013-09)
Content license	User contributions under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Socratic is a question and answer Web site for academic questions in a variety of subjects Users are encouraged to answer questions in-depth, and receive "karma" for doing so. In addition, users may upload informative videos.

History

In 2013, Chris Pedregal and Shreyans Bhansali founded Socratic with the intent of "making learning accessible to all students".

In October 2013, they received $1.5M in venture capital from Spark Capital and other investors.

In March 2015, they received $6M in Series A funding, again from Spark capital and other investors.

Site Features

Socratic consists of two main features. Users can answer submitted questions and edit answers given by others, earning karma for either action. Users with high karma are featured in a weekly leaderboard for each subject on the site. In addition, earning karma within a subject awards the user with progressively higher level badges for that subject. Alternately, users can submit informative videos, which curators sort into “chapters” within each subject.

Socratic is divided into many subjects, ranging from Algebra to Astronomy to World History. In order for a new subject to be added, it must be sponsored by at least eight “founders” who are knowledgeable about the specified field. Founders are responsible for creating an initial set of answers within the subject.

Reception

As of December 2015, Socratic claims to have helped over 8 millions students around the world. Teachers have used Socratic within the classroom by tasking students with answering questions posed by others on Socratic to improve not only their understanding of topics, but also their ability to clearly explain a topic.